Last week, I had dinner with the Schwartz family. These people are amazing. For realz… During dinner, Janine told me that President Obama would be at a fundraiser at the house two doors down from her place this week. I told her that August and I would DEF come back that night, to try and catch a glimpse of the President. We spent most of our time hanging out outside watching the fancy pants guests arrive and the Secret Service agents walking around looking important (and cute!). August was his usual monkey self and climbed around the Schwartz’s front porch…

…or went up and down the steep hill in the neighbor’s front yard. The brick building in the background is where Obama was set to arrive.

It’s getting dark earlier and earlier here in New England. But it was unseasonably warm, so it was the PERFECT night to stalk the President…

…or hide in the bushes.

We had to be wanded by a metal detector since we were hanging out. I asked if August could be wanded just for kicks. He didn’t dig it so much.

He just wanted to stare at the helicopter that circled the block for half and hour.

Finally, we saw signs that he was coming.

After his limo pulled into the driveway, Harry, Janine, Emet, August, the two neighbors and I RAN into the neighbor’s house (did you hear someone say “Come on guys!” at the end of the first video?) and out onto their back porch so we could see this:

[Sorry it’s so dark. But the VOICE is undeniable!]

HOLY CROW!!!! After that thrill, we went back to Janine’s to eat dinner and gloat to friends and family. A little while later, the neighbor called to say that Obama was leaving soon. We dashed out the door, and waited a short while to see him leave the fundraiser. I totally chickened out on asking the President to congratulate my little school for earning the highest scores on Massachusetts’s standardized test in the STATE!!! Dammit.

I love the dancing competition show, “So You Think You Can Dance” so much! In honor of the season finale last week, I’ve collected my favorite numbers from the past seven seasons. Some are really brilliant…

Chelsea and Mark

Neil and Lacey

Travis and Heidi

Mark and Courtney

Janette and Brandon–watch for Janette’s little stumble

Will and Katie

Kayla and Kupono–this dance is about dealing with addiction

Ade and Melissa–this dance is about a woman dealing with breast cancer

Jeanine and Jason

Robert and Allison–this dance is about a son supporting his mom through an illness

Many moons ago, my college a cappella group, Reveille, was asked to sing at the wedding (a regular gig for them it seems) of our number one fan (who happened to marry one of my residents when I was an RA in the only all-girls freshman dorm at W&M). Beth, one of my bridesmaids and director of Reveille my senior year, is the soloist of this beautiful song, “When You Say Nothing At All” by Allison Kraus. Count the number of times the look of confusion flashes across my face–this was my usual look when singing with Reveille. Ha.

I *always* say that August’s laugh is my favorite sound in the whole world. I’ll never forget the first time I heard it at Aunt Annie’s house two summers ago, and it’s just gotten more and more infectious.

He recently introduced his fake laugh. It’s nearly as amazing as the real thing as you can see in this video with Aunts Poptart and Liz a couple weeks ago in NJ: